Hello and again sorry for the lack of a recent post, purely due to work and the kids been off school. Only 2 weeks of that to go now!

The kids seem to have slowly increased bed time to later and later all through the school holidays, good work by them I must say

We just dont get online enough these days, we are making a concious effort to keep the laptops away and try to spend as much time with these lovely boys during the holidays. Plus we both work so much its just difficult.

Anyway to give a quick update, Liz had her blood test last week so we are another step nearer. We have our group session on the 17th of September and hopefully we can get properly started very soon after that. We were originally told that we could start our 1st run in October time but that might be slightly delayed we are not sure.

Just want to wish everyone out there the very best of luck, we have been trying to keep up with tweets of those currently going through a full IVF cycle. You are in our thoughts and we really hope it goes well

Oh and our eldest son has been totally fine since his faint, that is good news. He has his follow up in October but all looks well so far.

Take it easy everyone and as soon as we really get going with the treatment we will be posting much more regularly.

Cant wait to get going really

Hello again

Sorry for the lack of twitter and posts on here been so busy with work it is unreal. With the kids on school holidays as well it has been near impossible to get a minute to myself.

The good news is our eldest son seems no worse for wear, he has been fine since his faint. He has to wait until mid October for his follow up appointment at the hospital. Speedy NHS! NOT! But we are just please he is ok, we kept him in and off his gadgets for a few days. This made him very moody and I think he was suffering some severe withdrawal symptoms from his Ipod touch and games consoles. Apparently his whole life depends on them we are just a bit nervous about the small screens and fast images until we know what actually happened to him. He doesn’t realise it is all because he has caring loving parents. He just thinks he has bossy parents who don’t understand Guess he is only 6 months from officially been a teenager.

We have Liz’s dad and step mum over from California in a week, that should be fun it has been ages since we saw them.

On the IVF front progress is been made, I had my test results back and everything was fine their. Liz has to have her blood samples in a couple of weeks, then we have a group session mid October before I guess the real fun begins?

Anyway I just wanted to let everyone know we are still blogging/tweeting just maybe a bit less often until these kids go back to school in 22 days, not that I am counting

Max

Not quite sure were to start with this one

Tuesday was well a busy day!

It started at the clinic for my seaman test, an experience in its self I must say. I have seen quite a bit of info regarding IVF from a woman’s perspective but not to much on what to expect as a man I was pretty nervous I must be honest. But the staff at the IVF clinic were very good. I was taken to a small room and asked to provide my specimen, it was all really strange. But I got the job done and we are now awaiting the results. I have had the test before but provided the sample at home and delivered it to the hospital. This was just one of those experiences I guess and far less of a job than poor Liz is going to have to go through.

The room itself was a pretty small room, just a bathroom really but with a sofa. I was told to make sure the door was locked, maybe they have had some embarrassing problems in the past Lets hope everything is ok anyway!

This all went to insignificance on Tuesday afternoon, my 12 year old fainted while paying out bumped his head and lost his short term memory. He was very dazed, scared and confused and I had to rush via ambulance to the hospital. He has fainted before due to his very fast growing spurt he has just gone through but it is a worry. This time he hit his head hard when he fell and lost his memory from the last week and didn’t remember any current events for that day. He was fine to chat to but 10 mins later he forgot about it. he forgot the ride to the hospital, getting to hospital, getting treatment. We had to keep explaining what had happened and he must have asked where his phone was about 100 times! It was very scary but after ECG’s and lots of tests they found nothing wrong with him. We are relieved he is ok but he has a specialist appointment as this has happened 3 times now only not with the memory loss.

His memory is now back which is great, we are just keeping him close by to make sure he is fully recovered. He doesn’t like this as he just wants to play out with his friends. It made us appreciate what we have even more that is for sure, we are blessed with these kids. I just hope the NHS come through and follow up quickly with the specialist and an MRI for the little man. When he has fainted before he has been fine almost straight after and we always get him checked by the local medical centre and hospital. They always say he is perfectly fine and his heart and ECG were great.

So what was a very weird start to the day ended very stress fully indeed and I was in hospitals for nearly the whole day. This is the main reason for my lack of blogging recently

I also had to go on the train to Dundee for work, that kept me busy and tired for a few days

We next go for our group meeting in the next few weeks.

I also took the forum off the site as I don’t see anyone using it in the near future.

Thanks for reading it helps our progress greatly to get your help and support

Well I am finally writing on my blog I am not sure if this post will work as I am emailing it into our account. Let’s see I guess

Today I am in so much pain, I have been suffering all week but it is really bad today. I still get a terrible sad feeling when my period comes as it means another month of no success but the physical pain I get with it due to my endo is awful. I have real bad pains and cramps all over my abdomen particularly on my left side. I also get a really bad left knee for a few days which is a bit weird! I have to dose up on so many pain killers just to get through it and it last for 2 weeks. I have been telling myself that having another child might help clear up a bit of my endo. While they are growing in my belly they can keep busy by cleaning up a little The surgeons have been in there and had a go but to be honest I don’t really feel much benefit from it.

On the plus side we have gone for a few days holiday on the English south coast. I am sure that will take my mind off it for a while, I just wish Max didn’t have to go to work while we are away

Well I best get back to suffering and smiling and maybe I can post a bit more often now I have broken my duck Hopefully when I get started on the IVF the monthly suffering might stop fingers crossed!!

Hello again it is Max again! You know I set this blog up for Liz and she was so keen to use it but as yet she has hardly posted maybe she needs some encouragement from anyone reading I think she wants to wait until we get to know what we are talking about after our group meeting. As I have said before we know a lot about our best local clinics and costs involved but other than the general basics. Take egg mix with sperm, grow baby, implant baby, hope it develops etc etc we are a bit lacking in knowledge. We both read up quite a bit on the Internet but at the moment we don’t know exactly what treatment we are going to be given. We think I am ok so it is just a question of the drugs/treatments Liz might need. As I have said before she has already been through so much on this quest. We have both been longing for a baby for many years now

I think I am posting more now as this is such a relief that we are finally here on the IVF journey after so long saving towards it. Plus I am a techno nerd and pretty impressed with myself for setting the website and forum up. No one seems to want to use the forum and that is to be expected at such an early stage. I am hoping as our journey progresses others might stumble across it who don’t have my nerdy skills and can use it as well. We can see how that goes though but technology is what keeps my mind off the IVF and baby drive for a little while anyway.

Anyway back to my initial reason for posting our boys finish school for 7 weeks today! It is the summer holidays in the UK and they are so excited. Only problem for us is that our treatment might well start while they are off and we haven’t told them about out IVF or anything. It’s going to be tough thinking of reasons to leave them with family while we go to the clinic our family don’t know either so they might suspicious something is up when we are always asking them to watch over the kids. I guess we can figure that one out as and when it happens. On top of that Liz has transferred to another store for her company so she has the stress of that to deal with and I am always working away fixing up nerdy things I am working away all next week but luckily Liz and the kids get to come along for the ride. They are staying in a nice hotel by the seaside enjoying themselves while I go off to work.

If anyone has any good reference sites for any IVF please post in here or drop into our twitter feed. Thanks to those that already have

Well I guess I better get the crash helmet on for these excited kids due home from school any time soon. Pray for me! liz isn’t home for 4 hours yet

We have been making friends via twitter, thanks everyone for your help it’s good to know other people are in the same boat going through IVF.

We have been trying to get our minds off it today, working, walking our dog and gardening. Nothing exciting but it distracts you from the IVF for a bit

Liz might just get to go the IVF clinic before our holidays for her blood tests if her period comes in time. I am sure it won’t as that is our luck but we can hope

We might not post for a while now until we have had the follow up appointments and group meeting at the IVF clinic. We might though so keep an eye out

Well we have had 24 hours to digest all the information we were given at the IVF appointment yesterday.

The specialist had a good look through Liz’s history and it is amazing all the things we have been through to be honest. Our 1st Son was a month early and breach so had to be delivered by c section. He was also very ill an suffered from pneumonia at birth, we are blessed he made it despite been an emotional temperamental 12 year old these days We than had a miscarriage about 9 years ago which was very difficult before our youngest came into the world relatively easily 8 years ago. We then had another miscarriage about 7 years ago and zero since despite lots of trying. Liz has had 3 laparoscophys with lazer on her endo and tubes dye tests. The specialist was worried about her tubes last night but he decided they should not cause a problem and don’t need clipping.

Max gave a blood sample to test for HIV and hepatitis etc and Liz has to go back when she has a period for her blood tests. We have a group session booked in for our IVF information in a couple of weeks, lots to ask then already! We did get an idea of success rates and costs last night and its not as bad as we were thinking. It will probably be £4000 when everything is finished for 1 treatment. Strangely we did find out one of liz’s tubes is definitely open, we had been told this was not the case so in theory a natural conception could be possible, it just isn’t  though

Max has to go back to the IVF clinic 2 weeks today for a seaman test that should be ok.

The IVF specialist thinks treatment will start around September for us so that will work with our 2 boys on holiday for 7 weeks from Friday. We can get them back to school before we start the IVF process.

It’s all pretty scary and we are still not 100% sure how many times we will need to go to the IVF clinic or exactly what procedures they do. But it is a start and we have tons more leaflets and brochures to read through

Its really exciting because we have both talked and dreamed about this for a few years now. I don’t think we ever really thought we would get to this point and raise the money needed without risking our current lifestyle and sons security. But we are doing it and it is really exciting. We are still not telling family and friends though as we are not sure how they would react and we dont want the stress of that right now.

Liz is going to the gym soon to make up for the Mcdonalds last night so Max will have the house to himself for a bit while the kids are at football club We have to try not to get obsessed with the treatment if we can

If anyone has and info, support or advice please get in touch via here, twitter or our forum http://www.ivfdiary.co.uk/forum

Cheers

Max and Liz

The journey has begun……

Wow that was good! We had our IVF assessment tonight and it was really good.

We got there quite early and everyone was so nice, I don’t like hospitals at the best of times but this was fine

The chap who saw us was very informative and went over all Liz’s prior surgery, I didn’t realise she has had 3 laprascophys already he did want to do another one and clamp Liz’s tubes as he read her notes wrong! It was a relief to hear only 1 tube was blocked and she doesn’t have Hydrosalpinx like he thought…. Liz looked a bit worried when he mentioned that She does have some fibroids but only in the muscle so they should be ok. I guess the endo will be the biggest obsticle but the fact Liz has had 2 baby’s and 2 miscarriages is positive apparently even after 7 years of no success

I had to give a blood sample and the big baby that I am didn’t enjoy it at all. All in a good cause though, I was going to ask for a Cholesterol check on it at the same time, get my moneys worth I now have an appointment for a seaman sample 2 weeks tomorrow, I had one in 2008 and the result was excellent so I hope that is still the case Me and Liz then have to go back on the 20th from a group session to answer some questions we have hopefully Liz cant give her blood sample till the end of august as we are on holiday during her period this month

I really hope this IVF works.

We also had all the costs of the IVF pointed out and the extra hours we have put in to work should cover this

We have a few IVF leaflets to read through and I guess I can get all my results sorted before Liz has to start her test’s/drugs.

We think they are going to start an IVF cycle for real in September time so if it works that would be a summer 2011 baby, if only

I took a few pics of our trip tonight and I will upload them with my post tomorrow, just wanted to get something in writing before my brain turns to jelly tonight

Thanks for reading

Max

Good morning

Today is the day we go for our very first IVF appointment at our local IVF clinic. We are both pretty nervous and excited all at the same time. I am sure we will suffer from information overload later on Probably take a few days for everything to sink in!

It’s a pretty scary situation but I am sure we will settle down once we get to the IVF clinic. Max has arranged for his brother to keep an eye on our 2 boys. Not sure what we come back to there as he has a pool table and a darts board in his back room. I am sure they will be having a boys night in

Not sure how long the IVF appointment is supposed to last, all we know is to bring £175 for the appointment. In my profession that’s more than a full days work, for IVF specialists its probably half an hour

Well I am sure we will post soon with what actually happened later.

In the meantime we have been reading a great online diary already in place http://fifisivfdiary.blogspot.com/ it’s Fifi’s diary and very informative and emotional. I hope Fifi doesn’t mind us posting a link here?? Hope it’s ok!

Thanks

Max and Liz

Hi this Max!

I just wanted to quickly post on our IVF blog and diary. This is a chain of thoughts we are having whilst undergoing IVF treatment.

It is in it’s very early stages as we have not had our first IVF appointment yet we are experienced with hospital visits though. Liz has been through so much over the last few years. She has had a lot of procedures on our quest to have more children, I feel bad as I wish I could have taken some of the punishment in the operating theatre. Poor Liz has really bad endometriosis and blocked tubes, our chances of a natural conception are very very small. This really is our last hope to add to our family.

I am just so glad we had kids when we were real young or we might never have been able to have children. That’s a pretty negative thought though as I am sure IVF will work for us? It has to as I really want to be a father again. My current boys are so big now, they are really independant and I don’t think they really need me anymore, I guess we did a good job on them They spend more time with their Ipods and games consoles than us

We have also suffered 2 miscarriages in the past, at the time we thought we were just unlucky but maybe it was all to do with the endo back then. We had one just before our youngest was conceived and one a while after him. But nothing for many many years now. We want this so badly so please post any advice or tips in our IVF Blog for our IVF treatment.

We haven’t told any family about our plans or the fact we are going through IVF, maybe this is a bad idea? We just wanted to keep it private so we don’t get questions all time and if doesn’t work that would be even worse. Maybe that is a bad idea though as we will probably need some help with babysitters for our big boys while we go to the IVF appointments.

I also put up an IVF forum here just in case it might be helpful What can I say I like fooling around with websites Maybe I have to much spare time